The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1883.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4635, 12 November 1883, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1883.

In a previous issue of this paper we adrerted to the unwise course pursued by many colonial parents, in aimlessly bringing up their children, that is as far as settling their respective occupations is concerned. We endeavored to point out the absurdity of parents possessed of, and consumed by r peculiar feeling of a hybrid nature, which by some people would be called ambition, yet lacking the loftiness of a healthy influence in that direction. It was shown that many beys - and youths were sent forth from school, with a slight acquaintance of their own language as far as its purity is concerned, a certain amount of arithmetical knowledge, . and able to write—the last qualification proving, as a rule, the premier one—in fact, lacking other qualifications requisite to follow any occupation other than that of a clerk. The question of higher education is occupying themind9 of many thinking men and is proving a'nut that will require a deal of pressure ere its contents are thoroughly ascertained. Higher education is striven for, but owing to the want of knowledge possessed by those who direct their offspring, the meaning of ' this higher education which they strive for id not thoroughly understood. Dr,

Badbam, of the Sydney University, puts the matter very sensibly. He says:— " Do not understand by higher education that you should necessarily enter upon any higher occupations than were at first intended for you ; but those who follow the occupation of their fathers will have acquired a dignity, a place in the world, which can be ■ Rained by no amount of wealth, and which no trade or calling, however humble, can rob them of." The doctor does not speak of those educated icore meanly than is required for.pro* fessional training. He even goes farther than vre have gone: he points out (if his words are carefully analysed) that higher education does not necessarily lead to, or fit a youth for, any sphere superior to that of his parent, and although he doc? not actually make use of words to the effect, ho clearly implies that the trades and callings of the world being multifarious, and the learned professions few, it would be wiser on the part of parents, more especially those who are faithful to the j future of their offspring, if they fitted their | children for business within their ovfji ! sphere, and studied the prosperity of their sons by placing them in positions suitable to them, which they can if they possess the necessary talent rise above. As an Australian critic of the speech in question writes: "The first step towards this feeling is the recognition that the purpose of education is to fit men to adorn and to elevate the sphere in which they find themselves, and not necessarily to lift them into another and presumedly higher one. There is no reason why the mechanic should not be as cultivated and well-informed as the professional man, but there are very good reasons against every educated man thronging into the ranks of the already crowded professions." The World, we are glad to recognise, is becoming eminently practical, and the matter of utilitarian education and general progress is receiving attention and is forcing itself into general recognition. We hope for the sake of coming generations—we won't go so far as " unborn millions "—that parents will recognise the absurdity of the position we point out, and see that, because their sons are fairly well up in rudimentary knowledge, and are capable of taking positions which will not entail bodily labour, they should be denied the advantages attached to having a trade to fall back upon; that the " genteel slavery business " is only too palpable in a review of the lists of the army of clerks and other unfortunates who wear " broadcloth," bat whose misery is broader than their cloth ever was ; that true happiness is principally composed of contentment, which cannot be attained by the fish-out-of'Watsr sort of existence led by those beings who hover in an indescribable atmosphere between all sorts of classes and people. Let all the education possible be given to a boy, but let not the amount that he may obtain in excess of that possessed by his father cause him to scorn honest labor, or make him soar above the condition and position of his parents, unless with solid and good resolves. Vanity never yet^ made a man, and where sterling merit exists it is bound to find its level.